After several reports around the manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccine, Serum Institute of India, which has partnered with Oxford University to produce a vaccine, clarified that the Indian government has granted permission to only manufacture the vaccine and store it for future use.
The Pune-based Serum Institute said that Covidshield, the Oxford University-Astrazeneca vaccine candidate, will be commercialised once trials are successful and regulatory approvals are in check.
The clarification came after reports which stated that the COVI-19 vaccine may launch in 73 days.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is in its Phase-3 trials stage and once it is proven immunogenic and efficacious, the institute will confirm its availability.
ICMR, a medical research body, will soon launch a website which will provide all information related to the COVID-19 vaccine development in India and rest of the world.
Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has said that if everything goes well, India would get a vaccine against the novel coronavirus by the end of this year.
Three COVID-19 vaccine candidates, including two indigenous ones, are in different phases of development in India.
The phase-one human clinical trials of the two indigenous COVID-19 vaccine candidates, one developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and the other by Zydus Cadila Ltd, have been completed and the trials have moved to phase-two, ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava had said recently.
With a single-day spike of 69,239 infections, India's COVID-19 caseload mounted to 30,44,940 on Sunday, while the death toll climbed to 56,706 with 912 fatalities being reported in 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.
